Last night was a full moon, and the white flowers we found this morning on the giant waterlilies must have glowed as floating beacons on the black water. What we did not see were the beetles that were attracted to the flowers during the night, as the blossoms emit an odor that has been described to be pineapple or butterscotch, an odoriferous target for a pollinator. The beetle pollinators fly in, crawl through and are trapped by the flower as it closes in the morning. Not to worry, as the flower opens the following night, at that time the blossom is releasing pollen. The beetles are set free and fly away, now liberally coated in pollen, and continue visiting other waterlily blossoms, insuring the pollination and subsequent fertilization and with a little time, seed set for the next generation of Amazon giant waterlilies.
Knowledgeable not only in the identification, habitat and habits of the wildlife, but the ability to imitate calls of the birds is a skill our naturalists possess. A pair of Black-capped Donacobius came screaming out of the bushes as Rudy gave a mimicking whistle. The pair sat chattering on a nearby limb and then proceeded to wiggle their tails like clock pendulums while we watched enthralled at the proximity as well as the boogie-woogie moves of these amazing birds.
It can be difficult to photograph monkeys as they careen through the canopy. Nonetheless we figured out a method to capture images of squirrel monkeys as they went racing down the tree limbs. The troop would follow a route established by the leader, so we focused on a branch from the leaders pathway and waited for the remaining members to scamper right past our focus point. Click, click, click, we got ‘em!
Our bird checklist continued to grow as we navigated deeper into the Pacaya-Samiria Nature Reserve. Sightings included were the Scarlet-crowned Barbet, Laughing Falcon, White-eared Jacamar, Horned Screamers, Lettered Aracari, Wattled jacana, and a Black Hawk-Eagle.
Deep into the park is a lovely black water lake, and this became our late afternoon swimming hole. Equipped with floatie noodles and a sense of adventure a dozen or so of us jumped into the water for a cooling dunk. Our laughter floated across the water mixing with the distant calls of howler monkeys, horned screamers, and the exhalations of nearby pink river dolphins! We emerged from the water refreshed and as we headed back to the Delfin ll, a golden sunset marked the end to yet another amazing day exploring in the Amazon basin.
